Sgt. Cruise

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We've got new screens to go with those flower boxers!

By IGN Staff

Sgt. Cruise is coming to town, and he's loaded for bear. Titus will be bringing us this straight out action game featuring the massively disproportionate title character. Featuring big muscles, a massive torso, and a winning smile, Sgt. Cruise is an alien butt-kicking machine who even looks tough in his white flowered boxers. What? Read on, brave readers.

Sgt. Cruise follows the adventures of a tough commando type of guy who's been given the bum's rush by a bunch of misbehaving aliens. Our intrepid hero must save the world initially armed only with his boxer shorts. As he continues along in his adventure, he'll gain more and more articles of clothing and eventually super-powered armor that gives him maximum stopping power. I know, the whole thing sounds a little...off, but it gives the game a humorous edge that sets the tone for this comic action game. Each new piece to his costume grants him new artillery and abilities, to the point where he'll eventually be a half-human, half-tank machine. All told, there are about 15 different stages to the Sarge's evolution.

The character design in this game is looking very strong so far. Sgt. Cruise looks like an oddly sized Sgt. Rock with a somewhat less than intelligent look in his face. His enemies look great, too. A veritable rogue's gallery of misshapen monstrosities opposes our hero. They look pretty shady, but what did you expect? They stole the poor guy's clothes! Hopefully the rest of the cast will maintain the charm and humorous look of the characters we've seen so far.

You're going to have to blast your way through 30 different missions packed with enemies and destructible objects. Sgt. Cruise is at its heart a fairly simple 3/4 overhead action game, hearkening back to such classics as Ikari Warriors. Mass destruction is the name of the game. You'll be able to lay waste to nearly everything along the way using Sgt. Cruise's formidable arsenal of explosive weapons big and small. The number of weapons hasn't been decided on yet, but rest assured there's going to be a whole lot of ways to make the aliens regret stealing your pants.

Par for the course, this game is pretty. Featuring a whole wack of particle and lighting effects, Sgt. Cruise puts an awfully pretty pyrotechnic show on display. Sgt. Cruise's model looks great, with a fully functional expressive face. The levels we've seen look really detailed and packed with things to smash up. So far only city streets and rooftops have been shown so far, but naturally there will be a wide variety of other level types to romp and rage through.

Lastly, there will be two different two-player modes in the game. The first one is a split-screen co-operative mode where two players battle through the stages side-by-side. The other mode is a rarely seen type where one player controls movement and the other controls weapons. That's definitely an interesting choice which really demands perfect synergy between players, especially in a fast action game like this one.

There's not a whole lot more to say about Sgt. Cruise at this point. With it's bizarre sense of humor and straightforward approach to action gaming, it'd probably be worth your while to watch the progress of this title. It's not set for release until the first quarter of 2003, but keep your browser to IGN Xbox for all the details as soon as we get them.